My earliest memories of ballet will be familiar to many childhood dancers: ribbons, shoe fittings, hairspray (lots of it). I attended my first class at about four years old and continued off and on until my early teens, when I started to focus on other activities and on studying for exams. Since I was never planning to become a professional dancer, I didn’t consider that ballet would become an important part of my adult life. But today, at 32, it is one of my most meaningful passions – and I am so grateful to have rediscovered it.
That happened in my early 20s, when I was a corporate lawyer in London. The job involved a lot of late nights and desk work. I was looking for a fitness class that would get me out of my head and back into my body and I stumbled across a beginner ballet class. There, I was amazed to find that I remembered some of the patterns – the position of the spine, the arm movements (port de bras) – and the French terminology. But what struck me most was how good it felt to move with a group of dancers, to adopt the discipline of the ballet technique and see myself improve – if only by a small amount – by the end of the class.
Equipped with my renewed love of ballet, I quickly discovered the huge variety of adult classes on offer. Professional dance schools such as Central School of Ballet offer adult classes (for “fun, fitness and wellbeing”) and there is a wide range available for all levels at private dance studios. Throwing myself into ballet provided me with a way to de-stress from work, reconnect with my body and centre myself in the moment (try worrying about your emails when you are focusing on a perfect tendu or plié).
I quickly filled up my schedule, taking private lessons and courses and moving into pointe classes – revisiting those shoe fittings after a break of almost 10 years.
I have always had a love of fitness and movement – I am now a yoga and pilates instructor, even teaching at the studio where I took that first adult ballet class – but ballet offers something different. Many commentators have wrangled over whether ballet is a sport or an art, but it can encompass both: creativity and athleticism; expression and physical technique. Ballet has a unique ability to make you feel like a seamless part of a group and a solo performer; to feel light and effortless one moment and to feel the intense pain of pointe work the next.
More than any other fitness activity, ballet brings me back to the present – something I appreciate now in a way that my childhood self may have missed.
